★★★☆☆ Honestly, I was lost

Table Etiquette for Diplomatic Personnel, in Seventeen Scenes

Suzanne Palmer

Table Etiquette for Diplomatic Personnel by Suzanne Palmer is a short story (25 pages) that appeared in Asimov's magazine Jan-2021. (Thanks to @Hirondelle for pointing it out to me. Her review is here.) It is available as a free PDF. More than anything else, TEfDP reminded me of Muir Lafferty's Station Eternity There is a murder aboard a space station inhabited by a large profusion of weird aliens, and it falls to our human protagonist to identify the murderer and contain the diplomatic repercussions. From the start Palmer makes it clear that she intends to attempt humor by describing a diplomatic incident caused by farting aliens. I freely admit that I am not too good to enjoy crude bathroom humor. If this describes you, too, you may enjoy TEfDP. If you are too refined for this sort of thing, best give it a miss.

Station Eternity is a 463 page novel, and it is still confusing. The total level of incident in TEfDP is about the same as Station Eternity, but at only 25 pages, the density is much higher, and the amount of explanation much less. This is almost certainly intentional. I think Palmer means us to just sort of float on the humor and dialog and not try to make sense of it all.

There is, however, a plot -- a murder mystery to be solved. It does eventually get solved in a way that made sense and was also amusing. But up until near the end there was just so much going on that I felt lost.

Fun and short is a good combination.

Table Etiquette for Diplomatic Personnel

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